Saints roll to first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XLIV

Saints quarterback Drew Brees stood with his one-year-old son in his arms and looked to the sky.

The New Orleans quarterback had tears in his eyes as he struggled to grasp what had just happened.

A franchise that had 43 (mostly bad) seasons without a Super Bowl title was finally on top of the mountain.

A city just five years removed from one of the country’s largest natural disasters was fully united at least for one night.

The Saints are the Super Bowl champions, after earning a 31-17 victory over the AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts.

“We just knew we had an entire city and maybe an entire country in our corner,” Brees said. “I’ve tried for a long time to envision what this moment would feel like and even now, I can’t do it. It’s so special.”

The Super Bowl win was the first for the franchise who prior to this season was more known for its losing ways than its winning.

But the Saints were playing for more than a trophy and more than the title of “Super Bowl Champions.” They were playing for their city.

Thousands of fans lined the streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter following the game to rejoice the victory – a win Saints owner Tom Benson said was a statement to the world that the Crescent City had officially recovered.

“This is for New Orleans and for our whole state,” said Saints owner Tom Benson as he hoisted the Lombardi Trophy for the first time. “Louisiana, by the way of New Orleans is back. We just showed the whole world we’re back.”

Brees was the MVP of the game after a 32-for-39 effort with 288 yards and two touchdowns. The Saints’ quarterback connected on a 16-yard third quarter touchdown pass to halfback Pierre Thomas and a fourth quarter two-yard goal line strike to tight end Jeremy Shockey.

Brees’ journey to New Orleans was a match seemingly made in heaven as the Saints were the only team to offer the quarterback a free agent contract following a torn rotator cuff injury he sustained at the end of the 2005-06 season.

“I just feel like it was all meant to be. It’s all destiny,” he said. “The birth of my son this year, the same year we get a Super Bowl Championship … It can’t get better than that.”

The Super Bowl did not begin quite as the Saints planned, and for the third-straight playoff game the Black and Gold fell behind as the Colts dominated the first quarter and took an early 10-0 lead on a 19-yard touchdown pass from Peyton Manning to Pierre Garcon.

But the Saints controlled the remainder of the game and outscored the Colts 31-7 in the final three quarters.

Saints coach Sean Payton said he addressed the slow start at halftime and told his team if they played their style of football, they would be fine in the second half.

“It’s a credit to every one of these players,” Payton said. “There’s not enough room on the stage of all of them, but they carried out the plan. I’m proud of this team and this coaching staff.”

The icing on the cake came with 3:12 in the fourth quarter with the Saints holding a 24-17 lead and the Colts driving in New Orleans territory.

That’s when Saints cornerback Tracy Porter jumped a slant route and took a Peyton Manning pass 74 yards for a touchdown to close the deal.

Porter is the same player who intercepted a Brett Favre pass late in the fourth quarter of the team’s NFC Championship game against the Vikings.

Manning credited Porter for making an accurate break on the football and said he shouldn’t have thrown the pass.

“Porter made a great play,” Manning said. “Give him credit, because he made a great play. But that football should have been going in another direction.”

Colts coach Jim Caldwell shared Manning’s disappointment and said the loss will be tough to swallow in the offseason.

“There’s only one happy team in the National Football League at the end of the season,” Caldwell said. “We’re certainly disappointed.”

For the first time in the franchise’s history, that “happy team” is the Saints, who returned to New Orleans and took part in a victory parade on Tuesday.

The parade would have rolled win-or-lose in a city that has been overtaken by Saints fever. The victory parade also coincided with Mardi Gras, creating what may become the world’s largest party for the next several weeks.

“It’s unbelievable,” Brees said. “The road we’ve traveled to get here … the adversity we faced to get here. The number of people who believed in us to get us to this point. It’s all unbelievable. Mardi Gras may never end. We might just keep celebrating this year.”

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) holds his son Baylen after the NFL Super Bowl XLIV football game against the Indianapolis Colts in Miami on Sunday. * Photo by ERIC GAY / The Associated Press

Eric Gay